Caught
by bandgeek258
Summary: Kat was taken back to the night that she tried and failed to steal from W.W. Hale the Fifth. But what happens when there is a threat against a member of the Bishop family? Who will Kat turn to for help? Fluff! NO LONGER A ONE-SHOT!
1. Chapter 1: The Almost Perfect Night

**A/N: Well this is my version of whenever Kat was caught by Hale when she attempted to steal the Monet.**

****Disclamer: I am not Ally Carter. All characters, setting and some quotes below belong to her.****

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"_No thanks," Nick said. "I think I've got everyone but you." _

"_Oh." Hale smirked. "That's simple." Kat wasn't moving- wasn't dancing- and yet she felt like her heart might pound out of her chest as she watched Hale lean farther into the shadows and say, "I'm the guy happened to be home the night Kat came to steal a Monet." _

Kat was taken back to the night that she tried and failed to steal from W.W. Hale the Fifth. She was had been taking notes and watching this house forever. She was ready to finally finish the deed. She was ready to steal the Monet.

The weather was prefect for a heist. The sky showed signs of more snow by early morning. Another layer of snow to cover up the snow that Kat would be walking on tonight. She chose her stage well. Dressed in all black, tools in her belt, and looking at the mansion from the woods in the back, Kat Bishop was getting ready to steal the Monet from the Hale's.

The security system would be armed to at home, but that wouldn't bother Kat at all. She planned to walk right in and right out with the painting. She knew just about everything about the Hale's this home, out of many that they own, would be accommodating just two people tonight. The butler, Marcus, and W.W. Hale the Fifth. The butler always slept soundly, but W.W. Hale the Fifth seemed to sleep restlessly. This may become a big problem for Kat.

Just as the weatherman predicted, the snow began to fall heavily. Kat smiled as the slight breeze teased her hair, she knew that the wind was going to pick up as the night progressed. She took a deep breath before walking towards the house. All the lights in the house were off, and there were no signs of anyone awake.

The day before, Simon hacked into the security system to set the alarm off just at 2:24am the next day. Looking down at her watch, she saw the numbers go from 2:23am to 2:24 am as she reached the house. She quickly opened the window that would lead her to the room with the painting in it. She stepped inside the big living room and saw the painting ahead of her on the other side of the room. She smiled even bigger knowing that her job tonight was going to be simple and easy.

She would later realize that she would be proven wrong. She looked around the room as she stepped inside making sure that no one was near or in the room. The fireplace was empty be smelled of smoke as it was recently used, almost too recently. Kat stayed still for a few seconds listening for any sounds at all. She heard nothing, nothing but her breathing and the wind that had picked up from the snow storm. She walked over to the couch closest to the painting and set down her tools for later use. When she did so, she felt warmth threw her gloves. She swore silently and picked up the tool she needed and walked over to the painting knowing that she needed to hurry up.

She had gotten the painting out of the frame and was carefully rolling it up to put in a container that would be strapped to her back before she left. Just as she was getting the tools from the couch she heard a sound from upstairs. Someone was awake. Once she had gathered her tools she silently ran to the window and started to head out when a light came on in the room. She looked to the entrance and saw a guy with light brown hair dressed in nothing but a T-shirt and shorts.

He didn't looked surprise to see Kat with one leg in and one leg out of the room and an empty frame that use to hold a Monet.

"Katarina Bishop." He said walking into the room and sitting on the couch that had occupied her tools just seconds ago. "You picked a good night to steal my Monet."

She looked at him wondering how he would've known she picked this night. She thought about how he sometimes disappears for at least a few months to a few weeks. She thought about all the tings she knew about this estate and the ones who own it. She thought about the guy in front of her who seemed so much like herself, yet he wasn't.

"You're a thief." She said knowing it was true the moment she said it. She panicked and turned to run away from the room but warm hands wrapped around her arms and pulled her back. She felt warm breath down her neck as he spoke.

"Very good Kitty Kat. I'm very shocked that you got that close to stealing something from me. So close yet so far away."

She heard the line so many times before from her Dad. He used it when thief's failed their jobs. She knew that she failed hers. She sighed as she turned around and faced him.

"W.W. Hale I presume." He smiled down at her and reached around to take the painting from where it was on her back. She let him take the container and the painting out. He had to turn away from her to place the painting in its correct place. Once he turned to do so, she jerked around and headed toward the window. She got out this time and ran in the garden and into the maze the hedges made. Somehow she knew that he would follow. She knew him, well the one that he let people see whenever he was out. What she didn't know was what we really wanted when he followed her. She was hiding in the bushes blending in with the shadows as he came close to her hiding place. Close enough to touch. But she stayed still as she could steady her breath making it almost silent.

She knew that he could find her out here. All he had to do was turned around and place a hand out and he could touch her. But he didn't, instead he called out in a voice that was filled with confidence, and some cockiness.

"I know you're out here Kat, and I know that you know that I am not going to call the police. What would that do to my reputation? I would be nothing but a hypocrite and I hate hypocrites. So this is what I am going to do. I will turn around and close my eyes and you can walk out of here. I will never see you again or talk to you again. I get to keep my reputation and the Monet. It's a win-win." He proceeded to turn around from her. She knew that he knew where she was.

She eased out of the bush and went over to him and faced him once again. She found his eyes open and he was staring at her.

"You lied." She said bluntly crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm a thief; we lie, cheat and steal. But you do the same thing." He pointed out mimicking her and crossing his arms over his chest.

"So what are we going to do-" Kat started but she realized that she didn't know his first or second name.

"Hale." He finished for her.

"But that's your last name." she protested.

"I go by my last name."

"Can you at least give me your first and second name?" Kat asked sweetly.

He leaned down so close to kissing her. "Nope not a chance." He moved passed heading toward the house.

Kat was breathless for awhile but then she called to him. "Fine, Warren Walter Hale!" she picked those two names off the top of her head.

Hale just turned around and called back "Nope not even close. You'll have plenty of time to figure them out!" she saw him smile as he spoke and she smiled back.

"I hardly doubt it, Hale!"

"Giving up so soon?" he acted shocked.

"Not a chance!" she laughed along with him.

She turned around and started to walk away from Hale but she stopped and turned back around to see him trudging his way back inside. "Bye for now Hale. I'm sure you're right, we will see each other soon."

Then she turned around and walked back into the woods to the car waiting for her. She smiled as she got in thinking about Hale and the future.

Back inside the house, Hale watch Kat leave and smiled. "Bye Kat, we will see each other very soon." He turned around and headed toward his room thinking of the future and of Kat and Uncle Eddie whom he just met the other day. He knew about the plan to steal the Monet. Maybe, just maybe it was Uncle Eddie's way to test the two teenagers.

When Hale reached his room, he looked at the various surveillance pictures of Kat that he has acquired over the past few weeks. He knew as much about her as she knew about him, minus the first and second names. He smiled again thinking of her attempted to guess his two other names. He just knew that she would keep on guessing. He couldn't wait till the future that held the possiblites of heists.

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**A/N: So what did you think? Click that button that says 'Review this Chapter/ Story' and REVIEW!!! please? :)**


	2. Chapter 2: The Letter

**A/N: Hey!!!! Well I decided to continue with this story. I just couldn't get the characters out of my head. And like somebody said, I did kind of leave the 1st chapter at a cliffe. Sooooo... here's the second chapter!!! By the way, I will not be going back to the book (not now at least) this FF is just about the past. Just to let you know!! My mind my change later.**

***Disclamer*- I am NOT Ally Carter, all characters and settings belong to her!**

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When Kat reached the car, Gabriella, the driver for this heist, turned around with a disappointed face. "Let me guess, you failed."

When she didn't speak she dropped her head against the seat and closed her eyes as she complained. "You said that you could handle this! Uncle Eddie won't like this at all."

Kat rolled her eyes at her dramatic cousin. "Just drive Gabriella," she said looking out the window as the snow started to come down heavier. "Uncle Eddie doesn't want there to be car tracks in the snow. There needs to be no evidence of us here."

Gabriella sat up and looked at her cousin. "It doesn't really matter now huh, since you failed."

But she started the car anyway and pulled out into the snow storm. Kat leaned in the car seat and thought of what Uncle Eddie would say when they got back. When he asked who would do the job, Kat knew that it would be her chance to see if she could make it by herself. All in all, she thought that she had done a good job, minus getting caught by Hale. She had chosen the perfect night, studied the place and the owners for a long time. She had even gotten the painting almost out of the room before getting caught. Yes, she had done a good job.

The only problem was Hale. Why did he have to wake up? The more she thought about the timing of him waking up, the more it bothered her. Even if he was a thief, no one could be that accurate for timing when Kat was getting ready to leave. It was too perfect, and something about that bothered Kat. As the snow swirled around the car, Kat's thoughts did as well. They ranged from thinking that Hale was some sort of thief/spy trying to cause her humiliation to Hale being that good of a thief. Though everyone knew that thief's, even really good ones, made mistakes and were not always accurate.

Hale looked around her age, maybe a bit older, he would have to be a prodigy for being a thief to be that good as to catch Kat mere seconds from leaving. There had to be some way that he knew about the job beforehand.

All Kat had to do was find out who and for that she would have to sneak around. Though sneaky around was second nature to Kat. It would be easy. The only hard part was to find out whom to sneak around. Maybe the butler or maybe she should sneak around Hale more. There had to be more to him. What she found out by internet and snooping didn't give her much, just the basics.

She had to find out who Hale really was. She had no idea how she could do that without getting someone, like Uncle Eddie, suspicious. That was going to be hard. Up in the front seat, Gabriella stayed quiet, probably going over her next job with the twins in her head. Kat didn't really know for sure where her cousin was going since for the past few months she was busy with her own job.

All her work almost seemed wasted for one job. "Once the job is done, remember everything you learned about that person or place and then destroy the evidence. The job is over no matter what the outcome. If you get caught, do not go back." Her Dad always told her that growing up. Though she did get caught, she could not throw it away. She had told her Dad when he said that she will not get caught and now here she was, eating her own words.

The sting of getting caught would only make her succeed the next time. Next time, she will not steal the Monet in the Hale's home, but she will find out more about the owner of that Monet instead. Get to know his life, his patterns, and while doing that, come back for revenge. Not the bad type of revenge, the settling-the-score type of revenge. In her mind, the plan was already hatching. When Gabriella pulled into the garage of Uncle Eddie's home, Kat took a deep breath. Uncle Eddie would be asleep by know, he had to catch a plane to somewhere in Egypt for his own job and she would not see him till he was done. For him, it always depends. He could be gone for a few days to a few months. He is unpredictable, sneaky; he is Uncle Eddie.

Stepping outside, cold air and snow hit Kat's skin and she pulled her black coat tighter around her as she made her way to the door and inside. She walked past Gabriella and headed upstairs to her room. Once there she took off her hat, coat and went to the shower to get rid of the cold on her skin. The hot water felt good against half-numbed skin and relaxed her muscles. Though the wheels in her head was spinning rapidly devising her plan to truly know Hale's life and about him. The one he is so good at hiding. The one that will lead her to his next job and she smiled thinking of what will happen.

When she slipped into pajama pants and a T-shirt, she walked out of the bathroom to find an envelope on her bed. The envelope held her name on the front in script she couldn't identify. She looked around trying to find evidence that someone, anyone to have been in the room since she left. She saw none; everything was as she left it. This fact bothered her deeply. Someone had been in her room, she knew everyone that had access to the house and her room. She knew there handwriting and the one on the paper she held in her hands was not anyone's in this house. She sat down on the bed and opened it. The letter read:

_Dear Katarina,_

_By now you would have attempted to steal my Monet and I would have stopped you. When you reached your cousin in the get-away car, you would have been shocked to know that I had stopped you. You would have gone over and over in your head what went wrong. Let me tell you what went wrong: I was simply a better thief than you are. The reason why I've been up for a long period of times certain nights was to plan my own heist. You may be shocked to find out that __you__ were the target for my heist. By this time I may have answered some of your questions but I know that I raised many more. Good luck with everything and your next heist. I'm sure we will meet __very__ soon. I leave you with this to think about: I know just as much about you as you do about me. In fact I know a bit more._

_Goodnight,_

_W.W. Hale the Fifth_

Kat almost dropped the letter after she read it. She is his target. This made no sense at all to her. Why her? It was too big a coincidence. She decided then to get started on her heist. She also had to make sure that whatever Hale was going to do, that he would fail. She put the letter in a nearby drawer that had a hidden compartment, and got out a stack of paper and a couple pencils.

She sat at her desk and started devising her plan. While she was doing this, her mind kept on going back to the information that she learned about Hale and everything she found out tonight. She would use this to better her plan. This plan had to be perfect. There was no room for errors, not now. She could not afford it. It was about 7am when she heard the front door open and close. Uncle Eddie was heading out for his heist. That was when she decided to put her plans away and to get some sleep.

She had to hide her plans in the hidden compartment where she hid the letter. As she got under the covers, she wondered what Hale was doing. What if he was doing the same thing as her? Planning away, looking at everything making sure that he wasn't going to make a mistake.

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**A/N: So should I make the next chapter with Hale or should I continue with Kat? Let me know!!! :)**


	3. Chapter 3: The Email and The Request

**A/N: Sorry that its been so long since I last updated. My friend who was borrowing HS lost it and I still haven't got it back yet and I like to refernce things to make sure the story sounds right. So if it doesn't I'm sorry! Oh, since I could not decide if I should do Hale or Kat in this chapter, I just did both! Enjoy!**

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Hale sat up in bed for what seemed to be the millionth time that night. Every time he did so it was because of one girl, Katarina Bishop. He had met her earlier that night and he was surprised that he could even speak a coherent sentence. He stayed up all night planning the heist against her. After Uncle Eddie came over, well more _broken _inthan _came _in but they had talked. The subject was Katarina. Hale had no idea why Uncle Eddie wanted him to stop Kat from achieving her heist but he wasn't going to question Uncle Eddie's motives. He also was going to question how Eddie knew about Hale but he didn't ask, though he almost did when he was told to come up with a heist against Kat. Almost like an eye for an eye, a painting for a painting. Her humiliation for well he wasn't going to get humiliated, he knew this very well. He believed that he was a better thief than Kat.

He was a little touched when Kat thought that she could steal from him. Hale smiled at the thought of her again. He hand been thinking nothing but her ever since he heard her come in. He wandered what she was doing right now. Was she thinking of how things went wrong? Did she suspect that he knew about her job? Is she going to try again? If she is go to, when? What was her reaction when she read that note that he left her? That was when he had to tell himself to stop thinking that. He knew that if he kept questioning everything, that he was never going to get any sleep.

He got out of bed and headed toward his desk that held the plans. He took them out and reviewed them again, for what seemed like the billionth time. He just couldn't get the plan and Kat out of his head. After looking over the whole plan (which was several pages long) Hale sighed and climbed back in bed trying to get back to sleep again.

He looked up at the ceiling knowing in the back of his head that his body wanted to rest but his mind was on overdrive going through everything. It was analyzing everything Kat had done, trying to figure out her patterns. She seemed to work with her family on jobs and her last heist had been her first solo. He almost felt bad for her that she didn't succeed, almost. He was so close to knowing how her mind worked, all he had to do was watch her for a few more days, or to speed things up he could meet her and get to know her. He had never approached anyone that he planned to steal from or anyone that he stolen before. Yes, he had met the person to get on their good side and off the target list but never had he dealt with another thief. This fact bothered him, as far as stealing from another thief, he was inexperienced.

At 10am Hale was woken up by his alarm and he groaned as he hit the stop button and got up. He had about two hours asleep that night and he could feel the exhaustion already starting to set in and he knew that this was going to be a long day. He headed downstairs to get breakfast. Marcus had left to go get groceries, so Hale was alone in the huge mansion. This house was his favorite out of all that his family owned. His family rarely showed up, between his many trips and the fact that his family wasn't very social when it came to him; Hale barely saw his family at all. Though he had gotten use to it over the many years. He liked being on his own.

After a breakfast of Coco Crispies, Hale went back to his room to change in sweatpants and tennis shoes. He headed outside after leaving Marcus a note that he went out running and locking everything up, Hale started to run. The snow storm the night before had left everything looking like a winter wonderland. The trees were covered in snow and ice, the roads had not been scrapped and the salt solution had worn off. Hale smiled at the fact that his world had turned white overnight. He always liked snow, it made really good snow cream, and it was really good for thieving.

Then his smiled disappeared as he thought of Kat. He still couldn't get her out of his head. After a few more minutes of running he decided what he was going to do, he turned around and headed home. Once he got home he found Marcus was still not there. Hale immediately went upstairs the moment he stepped foot in the doorway. He found his laptop under various papers with scribbles of plans. He opened up his e-mail and then looked around of the piece paper that he was given about 48 hours ago. He smiled once he found it and then typed in what was written there before typing his request.

It was about 10:30am when Kat woke up. She sat up and stretched finding out that she must have slept on her shoulder wrong since it was hurting. She rolled out of bed and went over to the drawer that hid her plans and the letter. She opened up the drawer and read over her plans. They seemed well written for being written at a very late hour. She did, however change a few things in her plans before she headed downstairs for breakfast. Halfway down the stairs she smelled something burning and she quickened her pace and hurried to the kitchen. There she found that Hamish and Simon had burned or blown up their breakfast. Both of their faces looked shocked and excited under whatever had exploded. They looked at each other then Kat and started to laugh.

Kat let out her breath and started to laugh with them. "What did you do?" she asked once she could breath.

"Umm," Hamish started.

"Never mind, are you guys okay?" she looked between them looking for any signs of bleeding.

"Yep." They said in unison. Kat rolled her eyes and passed them to go to the refrigerator. She poured herself a glass of milk just as Gabriella came downstairs looking like she was ready for ex spy's to come in and take over at any point.

"You boys ready?" she asked coming over to the table and leaning against one of the many chairs around it.

"Almost." Simon said as they both had cleaned up most of the burnt stuff and headed upstairs. "Where are you going?" Kat asked Gabriella, sipping her milk.

"We need to fly to Britain for well I think you understand." she said. Kat nodded and smiled, she knew exactly what things they were going to do. They had to scope out the area, to make sure everything was going to be perfect for their job. Kat was also smiling because she knew this part of the job was the longest and most important, besides the actually stealing. Nothing could go wrong and they couldn't leave for any reason. This was also the part where the thieves had to be careful of everything they did. If one of them screws up, the job was compromised.

After a few minutes Hamish and Simon came down with luggage and plane tickets. Gabriella got up and headed toward where her luggage and plane was and followed them out the door, closing it in her wake. After they had left Kat smiled. She was finally alone. Alone to figure out everything she had to do about the Hale situation.

She had everything planned out in her head, but that was the problem. Many times when she was working out plans in her head, they never seemed to work out in the real world. Kat had to figure out where the line separating imagination and reality was and find a balance. That was going to be hard but she had to do it. She had to do it if she as ever going to be a successful thief; a thief that doesn't need to have someone to fall back on when her plan doesn't work.

Yes, it is nice to have a family to have as backup, to have that support when she needs it. This time is different. She had to redeem herself. She was going to do this, one way or another. Once she was done with her breakfast she went upstairs to get dress. When she was upstairs she saw her laptop laying her bed flashing.

This usually meant that she had an e-mail. But who was it from? Who would e-mail her? She rarely received an e-mail from anyone important, unless _Seventeen_ Magazine's updates were important. (_Seventeen_ is very helpful to thieving girls since it shows many ways to change their appearance) Kat went over to her computer and opened up her e-mail seeing one unread e-mail from an e-mail address that she didn't recognized. She clicked on it and a short e-mail popped up. This is what she read:

_Hello Kat,_

_By now Hamish, Simon, Gabriella, and Uncle Eddie will not be at your home. You will be all alone and I was curious as to what you were going to occupy your time with. I understand that you failed your last job and I have a request. Meet me at the nearby café in 1 hour, and we will talk more about my request. _

Kat was astonished to read that e-mail. How did who ever that was, know about her? How did they know that she was alone? At this thought she looked around her room as if cameras were in the room watching her. How did this person know that she failed? Has she been watched? If so, how long and how much did they know? This e-mail was bothering her. She had to find out sent it and what the wanted. With that last thought, Kat turned off her laptop and placed it in her mini briefcase. She went over to her closet and grabbed her hat, gloves and her coat before picking up her laptop case/mini briefcase and headed outside toward the café. Outside to meet whoever knew more than she wanted, outside to face the calm before the storm.

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**A/N: Next chapter will have the meeting and will have both Kat and Hale in it. There will be a lot more talking in the next chapter than this one. Sorry if any of you got bored! I'll try to update faster and reviews make me type faster! :)**


	4. Chapter 4: The Meeting

**A/N: I am SO sorry guys for not updating sooner. My friend lost my HS book and I've been going back to the book to get ideas and exams are getting closer (which I'm freaking out about) and I've been a writer's block for what seems like forever. Don't hate me for not updating sooner! :( I'll try to update sometime next week around Thurday-ish.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, I'm not Ally Carter.**

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Kat walked through the snow, seeing all the footprints of the ones who braved the cold. Up ahead she looked to see if any of the footprints led to the café. She saw several and she took note in her head everything she could about those that did. All around her snow covered everything, even the tress dropped snow from their branches, dusting everything in a powdery white that wasn't already white, including Kat. She reached the café and sat down; she opened up her laptop case and took out her laptop.

While she waited for it to turn on, she looked around the café for anyone suspicious. She saw no one out the ordinary, only the three employees and a handful of people. These people were unaware of what was going through Kat's mind, why she was opening a search engine and typing in 'W.W. Hale'. They didn't know that she had been to this place so many times before, looking up everything that she could about Hale's family. They didn't know that what was on regular websites, she had memorized. What she had to do was find more about the fifth Hale. The one that was more important than the others.

Kat scrolled down to find a website that she hadn't been before. When it opened there was a picture of Hale. It looked like it had been taken a few years ago. His hair was a bit shorter and his face looked a bit younger. He looked different than the last time she saw him, well the only time she saw him in person, the other times he was in black and white.

"Interested in me?" a voice asked behind her. She jumped at the sound and turned to see Hale standing behind her looking down at the picture of him. He smirked before sitting down in that chair in front of her.

"Perhaps, why are you here?" she asked him, her mind reeling with questions. He looked around the shop before looking back at her.

"Didn't you get my letter?"

"Obviously or I wouldn't be here."

"Well I thought that we could talk, face to face. You ran off rather quickly last night, we didn't have a chance to talk."

"I was on a job last night, I don't like to talk to the person I'm robbing. Unless I have to." Kat dropped her voice lower when she said this. There was no need to have the people in the shop to hear what they were saying.

"Same here but I don't think that, that rule applies here."

"Why?"

"Since we are very similar than anyone you have stolen from."

"True but still, it's weird." Kat dropped her gaze from him to the computer to log off.

He leaned forward to whisper, "It doesn't have to be weird if you don't want it to." He eyes and voice had soften a bit and Kat almost got lost in his eyes before looking away at a sign near the register to reply, "Are you flirting with me?" Her eyes jumped back and forth between his eyes and anything else in the room.

"Possibly, but you like It." when he said that she snapped her head and her eyes bore into his with astonishment.

"How can you tell, you have to know the person well enough to make any assumptions about them. You should know that very well." She began to gather her things and headed out of the café. She was a little ways down the sidewalk before she heard someone behind her speeding up to come to her side. Hale wrapped an arm around her waist, seeming comfortable with the action and he said without looking at her.

"I know you very well Kat." She kept on walking making sure that she didn't show any reaction to what he just said. She acted normal, like everything about the words didn't frighten her at all, even though they did. Certain things in her mind started to click together with that little information that she knew.

"You knew that I was coming?" she asked knowing that he would understand what she was asking.

"Very good, Kitty Kat; now all you have to do is find out how." He said with a smirk. He led her toward a black car and opened the passenger door for her.

She stared at then at him. "What are you doing, kidnapping me?" he just smiled and then took her arm and gently but forcefully pushed her inside before closing the door and walking over to the drivers side.

He started the car and headed down the road. "I'm simply giving you a ride. What's the harm in a ride? I mean the most harm a ride could do is if you catch a ride with a trained killer/ psychopath dead set on killing you. Though I do think I am crazy from time to time, I'm defiantly not going to kill you. " She looked out the window at the hind her smile. "You're smiling, you agree with me."

"I am not smiling."

"Yes you are, the corners of your mouth are raised and I can see your teeth. If that's not smiling then I must be crazy."

"Fine I'm smiling but really, how can a crazy person be a trained killer? And how can you be trained in killing? Maybe you are crazy, only crazy people can think of something like that."

He turned to look at her. "Maybe I'm just creative. We have to be creative to make plans for jobs. Right?"

"Very true." She said turning, smiling at him. The conversation kept going on like that. Kat found herself to feel comfortable with him. With every passing moment, it seemed that Kat learned a bit more about Hale. This knowledge would help her in the long run, though the more they talked, the more questions about who he really is slammed into her brain. She pushed those questions aside and focused more on the car and the things in it.

She saw several Coldplay and The Killers CDs in the dashboard, a notepad and several pens, gum packets, and Listerine breath spray. "Is that for a date?" She said pointed to the breath spray.

"Nah, I don't date. Maybe the occasional coffee shop waitress that I need to get information about someone but other than that I don't really use that." He glanced at her as he pulled into a gated driveway. This was definitely not near her home. In fact, she had never been in this way before. She knew exactly where he was taking her though. He was taking her back to his home. He slowed down taking the snowy curves with carefulness. "Why, do you want me to use it? Think that my breath is bad?" He joked with her.

"Not at all, just curious." They said nothing after that until he pulled into a garage attached to the mansion. "What are we doing here?" she asked as he opened the door for her. He walked her to the door that led to the kitchen. He said nothing but kept her hand in his the whole time. They passed the room that held the Monet and the other living room and up the stairs to a spare bedroom.

"We are here because I have a request. Don't you remember the e-mail?" he asked when she looked confused. He closed the door and let her hand go but he never strayed away from the door.

"Are you afraid that I might burst out of the room to steal your Monet?" she asked as she backed up to sit on the bed.

When he said nothing once more she spoke again. "Now I really feel like you've kidnapped me. You never let my hand go the whole time we've been in this house until you got me into a spare and practically empty bedroom and you haven't left the door and I'm sure that the windows are locked and there's probably no balcony or footing of any sort for me to jump out. Besides we are three stories above ground." He smirked and walked over to the bed to sit beside of her.

"There's no reason not to be precautionary, and nice job. You're not that bad of a thief anyway, even if I did stop you from stealing my Monet."

"About that,-"she started but a knock at the door made her stop. Hale got up and went over to the door and then looked back at her before opening it. He slipped outside and then she heard a lock slip into place.

Before she moved she waited to hear any signs of retreating footsteps. Once she heard them she stood up and immediately went to the dresser, looking for anything that could tell more about him or a way out of the room. There was nothing in the drawers but some dust, though dust was good. Dust could tell you what the person had been touching or using. Dust was a very good thing for Kat. She kept on looking and listening for any footsteps. She got through the whole room with nothing in sight.

She sat back down on the bed and looked around. _There has to be something in here._ Kat thought. Sooner or later he would be here to do whatever he wanted to do. What he had in mind, she didn't know, she almost didn't want to know. Almost. Then she spotted a picture in the corner near the windows. She went over to in and took it away from the wall. Behind it was a safe. She smiled, there _was_ something in here. She turned the picture to the back and right there was the combination. 24-21-07-98-46. _Bingo_. She was in. She set the picture carefully on the floor and opened the safe. Inside there was one folder. She picked it up and scanned the papers in there. They were all pictures of her before she even was planning the heist here, according to the date at the bottom. She quickly flipped through all the photos and at the bottom of the pile was a letter.

_Hale,_

_Meet me at the coffee café in 10 minutes. We need to talk about a job._

_Uncle Eddie _

Then at the bottom of the page in different handwriting was this:

_Katarina Bishop,_

_If you are reading this, it means that Hale has not done a good job hiding this from you. In fact he was probably very lazy in hiding this. Any way, you might want to watch what you do. It might cost you in the end. _

She had not seen this handwriting before and that's what scared her. She quickly put the file up but tucked the letter in her pocket. She made sure everything was in order before going back over to the bed just as the door opened.

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**A/N: I know that I left it at a cliff! On top of not updating sooner, yall must think I'm evil! Sorry, I'm not evil but I am a bit crazy! Haha! Please review, it really helps me to get opinions on my writing!**


	5. Chapter 5: The Sort of Confession

Kat wanted to get home in a hurry after Hale got back into the room. She had to agree to talk to him later on that week before he agreed to take her home. Even the fact that he knew where she lived didn't freak her out. All that was going through her mind was that fact the hale knew and talked to Uncle Eddie and the person that knew about Kat somehow. That was the only thing that seemed to worry her; everything else didn't mean anything to her at the moment. At the moment she had to find out everything she could about hale and Uncle Eddie's meeting the best she could without rising suspicion from either one of them.

Now the way to do this was to talk to Hale and to befriend him. She had to push aside her revenge against him to this. Revenge was not as important was what she had discovered. She had to plan how she was going to do this; this was nothing she had ever even thought she would have to do. She hated the fact that she had to talk to a thief that was outside of her family, and one that she had tried to steal from. She would have to get through it though, she had to. Kat went upstairs to lie down and let the almost-shock she had wear off. She had been asleep for a few minutes when the shrill of the phone woke her up.

She got up and went downstairs to answer it, "Hello?"

"Hey Kat, it's Hale, I was wondering if I could come over."

"Why?"

"You're not going to ask how I knew your phone number? Hmm, I thought that you were going to freak out of something, though you didn't when I drove you home-"

"Do you ever stop talking?"

"Nope, so can I?"

"Sure why not? But why are you coming over? Do you need to get a good view of the place before you break in and steal something?"

Hale chuckled before answering, "That didn't even cross my mind."

"Hmmmhm sure, I'll try to believe that."

"I'll be there in a few." And with that he hung up. Kat clicked off the phone and walked to the door just as Hale had reached his hand up to knock.

In the doorway stood Hale with his hand in a fist and a shocked look on his face. "Just a few minutes huh?" Kat asked smiling and opening the door wider to let him in.

"Well you know how fast I drive." He replied, the lie rolling off his tongue.

"Yeah, I think you ran over a squirrel when you drove me home."

"I did not!" she gave him a look that said 'yes you did, just admit it.' "Just a little bit, maybe." He held up his pointer finger and thumb to put them close together but not touching. "Fine I hit a squirrel, but every single squirrel is suicidal! They run out in traffic and stop in the middle of the road like we are suppose to let them pass. Even when we do they don't move. It's not my fault that they have no common sense."

"Well, why doesn't the government put a Squirrel Crossing or Caution: Suicidal Squirrel Ahead signs up? Will that make things better?"

"I guess, but they will have to put up signs everywhere. Squirrels are known to run around to different places. You never know when they will strike." He said with a grin.

"Are you done with your squirrel rant?"

He put his fist under his chin and made a thinking face. "Hmmm, I don't think so."

"Really? How much more could you say about squirrels?"

"I don't know."

"So are you done?"

"Sure why not?" he walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Well make yourself at home."

She said following him and sitting beside him. "Thank you, I will." They sat there for a few moments in silence.

"So."

"So."

"So how is the life of a rich boy who just happens to be a thief." Kat asked, she leaned back against the armrest and faced him. She pulled up her legs and rested her chin on her knees. He looked over her before answering.

"It's not that bad, just a lot of time by myself. I guess that's the bad part about everything. It's one of the main reasons why I'm here. I figured that you'd be alone and wanted some company as well. So here I am."

She looked at him curiously. "You know I didn't ask you why you're here."

"Yeah I know. I just figured that you would want to know eventually."

"You are right there. But what I really wanted to know is about that room you took me in. Why put me in there?"

He leaned forward, his face so close to hers that she could feel his warm breath as it brushed across her face. "I think you know that answer. You have been getting letters recently. I just made that one a bit harder to find."

"You knew about that letter?"

"Yep, I know all about that letter and the one who wrote it. "

"Wait don't you mean the _ones _who wrote it?"

He pulled back slightly, confusion written on his face. "Ones? All I know is that Uncle Eddie wrote on that piece of paper. You must have been seeing things."

"No I wasn't. There was someone else who wrote on that letter. And whoever that was, he/she was addressing me."

"Well that changes everything." She stood up and walked upstairs to where the letter was and pulled it out and went back downstairs where Hale was still sitting on the couch staring ahead in a daze.

"See?" she opened it up and showed him the bottom of the page where the note to Kat was. He pulled it closer to his face as if it was impossible that something else was on the paper.

"That was not there when I got it. Someone must have taken it and written that one there knowing that you would find it."

"Um not really. Did you even read the part where it said that if I found that you must not have hidden it very well?"

"That could mean anything." Hale shot back at her as she went back into the position she was in before.

"Yeah, like what?" She challenged.

"Like that whoever wrote that was looking for this letter and they obviously thought that I would hide it better than I did or something like that."

"Well why didn't you hide it better?"

"I don't know. I never realized that you would come over to my house and find it with something else written on it threatening you!" They were both yelling at each other.

"Does that mean that you were expecting me to come over and find that letter and start questioning you about what the hell you were doing with my Uncle?"

"Actually yeah I was!"

"Well what the hell were you doing with my Uncle?"

"I was meeting him at a café because he wanted me to meet you so I can become apart of the family!" then his eyes widened. "Shit I was not suppose to tell you that."

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**A/N: Hehehe I'm evil aren't I? We're getting into the plot now. School's out so I'll have more time to update and possibly write longer chapters. Should I write longer chapters or keep them how they are? Btw if I could have 30 reviews that would be awesome!**

**Love, **

**bandgeek258**


	6. Chapter 6: Snooping and Joking

"What?" Kat asked eyes wide with shock, her voice down to normal volume.

**"You're Uncle found out about me and what I do somehow and now he wants me to be apart of the family." Hale's voice went back to a normal volume as well and Kat dropped the letter. She was in shock about what she just found out. How could Uncle Eddie do something like that? Why would he want Hale to become apart of the family?**

"Like how? Married or just figuratively?"

"I don't know."

"How do you not know? Didn't you go see him about it?"

"Yeah but it was about something else, he only just mentioned it."

"Of course he didn't say anything about it, that's just like him."

"Would you want me to be apart of the family?" he asked looking up at her and she looked him square in the eye when she answered. "No. But apparently I don't have a huge choice. Wait. What _other stuff_?"

Hale looked around as if he was deciding what to tell her. She saw this and knew that Uncle Eddie was not only hiding something from her, but had an interior motive about Hale. Why else would he want Hale to be apart of the family? Was Uncle Eddie trying to play matchmaker for her? She shuttered at the thought of Uncle Eddie doing something like that. No, Uncle Eddie would not do something like that and actually involve Hale. Uncle Eddie must want Hale to become apart of the thief family. The family that no one on the outside sees. The true Bishop family.

"He told me to stop you from stealing my Monet. He didn't tell me why, that's all he said, 'Stop Kat from stealing the Monet and become close to her.'" he said finally. She looked at him suspiciously, wondering if he was not telling her something. Something that could help her piece together the little mystery that she had.

"Okay." She knew that sooner or later, she would find out the truth. All she had to do was a little snooping.

"I need your help with something." She said, a plan forming in her mind.

"What?" he almost looked a bit scared since Kat was now smiling and getting up to go over to the hall that held Uncle Eddie's bedroom. He followed her into the bedroom and smirked, his cockiness coming back. "Kat, now I know that you like me and all but I'm not ready for _that_."

Kat whipped around and her smile had disappeared before it came back as a devilish one. "Really?" She walked over to him. She knew that he liked her, any girl can tell when a guy is hitting on her and he had been hitting on her since they met. "Because I thought that you wanted to be apart of the family." She got so close to him that he could lean down and kiss her if he wanted to. At that point, he wanted to but he knew that if he did, he would somehow regret it later.

"Not like that Kitty Kat." he smiled and backed up.

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"What Kitty Kat? Do you not like that nickname?"

"I don't mind it, but a nickname is something that a person calls you frequently. You've only called me that a few times. It's not nickname worthy."

"Well I'll keep calling you Kitty Kat, Kitty Kat." He smiled as she laughed. It was the first time that she actually laughed. "So what is it that you wanted my help with, Kitty Kat?"

She rolled her eyes but her smiled stayed on her face. "Are you meeting with Uncle Eddie anytime soon?"

"No, why?"

"I was wondering if you would help me snoop."

"You want to snoop on your Uncle?"

"Yeah, he felt the need to hide something from me that includes me and I need to find out what it is." She walked over to his dresser and began looking for anything that could help her and Hale did the same. With two thieving minds, they knew exactly where to look. What type of things to look for and how. When Kat was looking in his closet when she saw a laptop on and a letter on it. It read,

_Dear Jaden, _

_Tomorrow you need to start the plan, before it's too late._

_Uncle Eddie_

"What does that mean?" Kat wondered, looking from the letter to Hale.

"Who's Jaden? Is he a family member working with Eddie on that heist he's working on right now?"

"Nope, well at least I don't think so. Uncle Eddie always works alone or with the family, there's no Jaden in my family." She sat down against the door and Hale did the same. Kat's mind was racing with questions that she decided to spill them all. "Okay, what we need to do is find out who thi Jaden person is, what he has to do with Uncle Eddie, why Uncle Eddie wants him to start this plan, what the plan is, if it includes Uncle Eddie leaving, and what the hell we are going to do."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. But you really need to relax. Look at me, I'm freaking out but I don't show it. You're over there like an open book, if that's your best poker face then why don't we play poker why we figure everything out."

"Really Hale, you want to play poker at a time like this?" She looked over at him, he looked calm, cool and collected while she felt like an open book like he said. How could he be that calm and thinking about poker.

"Why not? It's a good way to practice my poker face and besides I can think of another stress reliever but I doubt you want to go there."

Kat rolled her eyes knowing what he meant by the _other_ stress reliever. "Hale you are so perverted."

"No I'm not, I never said anything, you're the one with your mind in the gutter."

"And guess who put my mind in that gutter?" She asked feeling some of her panickness slowly slipping away from her as she began to relax around Hale. His pervertedness and the fact that he never seemed to be anything but relaxed seemed to radiated from him into her.

"I guess that would be me." He said sounding like a little kid who just got caught doing something bad as he raised his hand.

"Very good Hale!" She laughed with him. Yes, she was beginning to feel very comfortable around Hale. All thoughts of Jaden, Uncle Eddie and the plan disapperaed from her mind for the moment as she and Hale joked and laughed.

**A/N: I am a bad updater! Sorry! I also want to go ahead and tell yall that I will not be anywhere near a computer to update July 4th - 10th because I will be on a mission trip with my youth group. I'll remind yall next time I update because I WILL update next week before I leave. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and who added this story on their favorites/story alert! Yall keep me writing and updating!1 See yall next week!**


	7. AUTHORS NOTE!

I am a terrible updater! Yall must hate me by now! Well you see the week I left for my mission trip was hectic and I couldn't get to the computer. After my mission trip I had to go to the hospital every Friday for 4 days because I had to get rabies shots. (We were exposed to bats while we were sleeping and apparently you can't feel a bat bite so as a procautionary measure, all 48 of us had to get rabies shots) The shots must of drained me of all my energy up until the beginning of August I did nothing but lay on the couch and be lazy. At the beginning of August I had band camp which kept me busy from 8am-12pm & 6pm-9:30pm Mondays through Thursdays. (the time in between practices I was napping) But the MAJOR reason why I haven't updated is because my friend still has not found my book yet and I haven't read Heist Society in months. My mind has gotten out of that world and how the characters are, I've lost touch with the Heist Society. I have attempted to write chapter 7 but when I read it again, it sounds very sucky. When I get Heist Society back and I get my writing mojo back, I will update as soon as possible. While I'm ranting I want to thank everyone who has read Caught and thank you to those who still want to read it. Thanks to those that have commented, yall let me know how I'm doing as a writer. To gallaghergrl: thank you so much for helping me decide to continue with this fanfic and not just having it as a one-shot. You're awesome! Thanks to everyone who has added this fanfic to their favorites/story alert. Well all in all, THANK YOU!

Love,

bandgeek258


	8. Chapter 7: Planning

**:)**

**Disclamer: I am not Ally Carter and I do not own Superman, Spiderman or Hello Kitty.**

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It had been several weeks since Hale had come over that first time, and ever since then she had gone to his house to plan or to simply see him. The more time she spent with Hale, the more the idea of letting him in the "family business" sounded even better. Something in the back of Kat's mind told her that perhaps it was okay to be friends with Hale. Or perhaps it was the pure instinct that she grew up with that told her to trust him. So far he hadn't given a reason to question her judgment of him. In fact he was actually very helpful.

He had many connections that would help her and her family with jobs in the long run. It turned out that Marcus was also really helpful in many ways. From cooking to gathering plane tickets and arranging everything that they would need for their trip to Uncle Eddie. Even the strange and random requests that Hale had, he delivered fully.

Kat assumed that he was use to Hale getting up one morning and asking for plane tickets to Russia or some place even more random than a normal boy would ask for, even for a rich boy. Within those several weeks, Uncle Eddie had traveled from Egypt to somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea to Russia. Kat and Hale were all packed and ready to leave that afternoon, hoping that they would reach their destination before Uncle Eddie left once more. They did not want to go from place to place chasing Uncle Eddie across the world. But they both decided that if that was all it took to find out what he meant by Hale joining the family and figuring out who this Jaden person was, they would do it.

They were sitting in one of the many rooms in the house looking over blueprints to the hotel they knew Eddie was staying at.

"So what's the plan again?" Kat asked. Hale had been the one to arrange everything so far.

Hale leaned over and pointed to a room in the hotel. "This is where he is staying." Then he moved is finger a few floors up to room with a balcony directly three floors from Eddie's room. "This is where we are staying. We are posing as photographers working for a magazine here in the U.S. and we will need to tour the town."

"Wouldn't the people working there wonder why teens are professional photographers for a magazine?"

"No, look at Peter Parker. He was a teen working for a newspaper. What's the difference?"

"Actually Peter Parker was college student when he first became a photographer for the newspaper and you can't use Spiderman as a way to convince me that nobody will be suspicious." She said smiling at Hale and his strange love for comic book heroes.

She was still getting use to the fact that an almost grown guy had a strange love for comic book heroes. She had walked in one morning into the kitchen seeing Hale in Superman pajama bottoms and a plain white tee. After laughing for a few minutes, she finally asked why he had Superman pajamas.

"Why, do you want some? Perhaps some Hello Kitty pajamas to match your nickname?"

"What does Hello Kitty have anything to do with my nickname?"

He pondered this for a moment before replying, "Nothing really except the cat part." He smiled at her before going past her to the stairs where she assumed he was changing out of his Superman pajamas.

She smiled at that memory and then turned her gaze to the boy sitting next to her. He was studying the blueprints of the hotel, not noticing her at all. He was so consumed by the plan that he seemed to block out everything else. Then she turned to study the blueprints as well when Marcus came in holding a manila envelope. They both looked up as Marcus handed Kat the envelope with a "This just came for you Ms. Bishop." He left the room quickly and quietly as Kat began to open the envelope. Inside of it were pictures of different paintings, many mini blueprints, and a letter which read:

_Dear Mr. Hale and Ms. Bishop,_

_I have a challenge for the both of you. Enclosed you will find seven pictures of some paintings; these paintings are placed all around the world and have extensive backgrounds with the somewhat of different types of security. I will give you four weeks to gather these paintings and deliver them. The items you will be looking for will be taken to certain places. Once you gather one painting, you will take it to another place where you will find the next place to take the next painting to. However, if you do not meet these regulations in duration I have given you, your Uncle might not come home from his "trip". _

_I am watching. Good Luck. _

_Jaden_

Kat looked up at Hale in time to see his eyes widen. "What do we do?" He asked still staring at the letter as if the writing would transform into something different like perhaps junk mail or a tip from her father for a job. Anything but what was on the page.

Kat flipped the envelope over to look for a return address but she found what she expected. The front of the envelope was blank but had her name stamped on it. She squinted at the letter and then got up from her place at the table and headed upstairs to her room. In her room, her clothes were in the transition of being packed. Half of them were on her bed waiting to be folded and packed and the others lay in her suitcase. The various papers that she had acquired in the past few weeks were neatly stacked in different piles on her desk.

These stacks varied from importance and topic. It wasn't until she reached her desk that she heard Hale arrive in the doorway of the room.

"What are you thinking now? Because I'm sure that we are not going to find all seven paintings in those stacks of papers. So if you give me that letter I'm sure that we can go to the computer and looked up those paintings so we can possibly get Uncle Eddie back. But if you don't want to ever see Uncle Eddie ever again, which could possibly make your father very upset and I'm sure that he will somehow blame me for it since I'm not apart of that fam-"

While Hale was ranting, Kat was going through the papers and finally found the letter that Jaden had first left her. She showed it proudly in front of Hale's face to show that she had a purpose to go through the stacks of papers and mostly to stop his ranting. She held the letter that Jaden originally gave her and the letter she just received up.

Both of the handwritings were the same. "Okay, so the handwritings are the same." Hale said looking at the pages as if so magic writing will appear. "What does that mean?"

"It means that this Jaden person knows who we both are and can get into your house." She said placing the first letter back on the desk. "It also means that he must have been watching us for a long time if that letter was behind the painting long enough to collect dust."

"So this means we're looking for the paintings?" he asked taking the paper and looking back over the list of paintings and blueprints. Kat walked over to her laptop and typed in the name of the first painting.

The search engine took her to the home page of a museum approximately one and half hours from the house. Her eyes traveled over every picture and word, taking in everything that could possibly help her and Hale in the quest. "We're looking for the paintings." She replied and from the corner of her eye, she saw Hale smile in anticipation.

She would do practically anything for her family, but she feared that somewhere down the road of this job that she might have to call on bigger forces; her family. She pushed that thought out of her mind and focused on the picture of the painting in front of her. It looked simple but very intricate with the variety of colors. She could see why it was very valuable and under close watch.

Just from looking at the painting, she could almost see the obstacles ahead of her and she knew that somehow she would get through them. Hale was already looking at the blueprint for this painting and looking over every detail. It was when Kat scrolled down on the Internet page when she found the location of this painting. It was in Russia, just a few miles away from the hotel that they had originally planned to stay at when they were going to track Uncle Eddie.

"You didn't cancel those reservations at the hotel in Russia right?" she asked Hale.

He looked up at her, confusion on his face. "I was going to before dinner, why?"

"Don't, the painting is conveniently a few miles away." She turned the laptop to show him the map of the town they were going to stay at.

He smiled from his place on the floor. "Perfect. But we have to ditch our cover as photographers."

"Why?"

"Security at museum will have a close watch on professional photographers. It would be better if we picked a different cover."

"You didn't call the hotel for our reservations right?"

"No, everything is on the Internet. We are just two people staying at a very fancy room."

"Perfect. You work on the cover and I'll look up the other paintings."

"Okay." He said grinning as returned to the blueprints. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head. She turned back to the computer the wheels already turning in her own head.


	9. Chapter 8: Covers

**Hey everybody! I know it has been a long time since I've updated and I'm sorry! I think it's offical that I am the worst updater in the face of the planet. But for you Kat/Hale lovers out there, you will love this chapter. ;)**

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By the time night fell, Hale and Kat were sitting on a plane heading towards Russia. They came up with a different plan and kept all the documents from Jaden in the computer just in case they had to make a quick escape. Kat was almost stressed from the sudden change of plans. She didn't like changing a plan once it has been set in her mind. Sure, whenever the situation calls for some improvising, she would do it but other than that, she hated change. Usually she liked having control over what was going on, or at least have a say in it. She would do anything for her family but so many questions bounced around in her head. If Uncle Eddie knew this Jaden person, why would Jaden do something to harm him? What did the note they found in Uncle Eddie's house mean?

_Dear Jaden, _

_Tomorrow you need to start the plan, before it's too late._

_Uncle Eddie_

What plan? What did it have to do with her and Hale? What did it mean? It bothered her to no end to not know what was going on in her own family. They rarely kept anything from each other. The only time they kept secrets was when they had a super-secret heist that even the person pulling it off didn't know what to do. Kat's family was a close one. Closer than some families. They had to be because of their profession. It was dangerous to keep things from your family and most of the time, impossible. When your life is revolved around stealing and taking things from other people, being able to judge a person from the things they say, do and keep, it becomes too much of a tedious task to keep things from the people who do the same and who you see almost every day. The major thing Kat did not understand was why Uncle Eddie was keeping Jaden and the plan between them a secret from her. It didn't seem like Eddie to do something like that.

Because of her suspicions, both Hale and Kat were looking at every website, book, newspaper, magazine and video of the painting and the security. They went through a quick plan but they both knew that they would have to improvise somewhere down the line; it was inevitable. But that's what thieves have to do every now and then. Improvise. Without it, many of the famous heists would have been nothing but a huge failure and a lesson to others to not panic but improvise. The people who tried to steal something but had no communication skills with their partner or partners would never get anything accomplished.

Kat found this out early on when she went to help Gabrielle steal one of Uncle Eddie's Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was whenever they were around five or six and they were already learning the ways of thieving. Gabrielle and Kat didn't really get along then but they both decided that they would team up to get a cookie for the both of them. Teaming up for that few minutes was worth one of Uncle Eddie's Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies. Kat was the retriever and Gabrielle the distraction. As it turned out, just as Kat was getting ready to run away with the cookies, Gabrielle had run out of things to tell/ask Uncle Eddie. He had turned to continue cooking and right before he did Kat had given a universal hand gesture for 'stop him' and all her cousin did was look at her blankly. Uncle Eddie had turned and saw Kat with her hand in the cookie jar and made a very 'Uncle Eddie' type comment on how he literally caught Kat with her hand in the cookie jar. Years of the Cookie Incident, Eddie had told the story over and over.

Kat smiled at the memory and turned to her computer screen where Hale was watching one of his favorite movies; Spiderman. They had been on the plane for a couple hours and still had about three more left. Hale was staring intently at the screen as the Green Goblin crashed through the wall of Aunt May's room. His eyes practically gleam with excitement in the light of the screen. She knew deep down, he was just another boy hoping that one day all the superheroes become real. She watched the rest of the movie with Hale; laughing every time he practically freaked out during the intense parts.

Right before they landed, Hale leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Our covers should be easy. Just pretend we are star-crossed lovers." Kat could practically hear the smile in his voice.

She leaned back and glared at him. "But we _aren't_ star crossed-lovers." She said in an almost deadly voice.

But Kat didn't hear Hale mutter "Not yet," as the flight attendant announced to buckled their seat belts and turn off all electronics. Once they landed, Hale took every opportunity to place his hand on the small of her back or placing his arm around her waist. It surprised her how much a small movement could be monumental for knew it was just for show, even though they were only at the airport; they had to get use to their covers and make everything look as natural as possible.

But Kat couldn't shake the feeling that she actually liked the warmth that radiated from him. By the time they got to the hotel, Kat was on high alert; noticing everything and anything around them. It was almost to the point where she seemed paranoid that a ninja killer was going to pop out of nowhere and attack her.

Hale on the other hand just seemed relaxed and perfectly at ease. It was like he really was on a vacation with his star-crossed lover. It was like night and day with the two thieves' attitudes. Their room, which was more like a mini apartment, had one queen sized bed with a white comforter with different colored fluffy pillows on top, a kitchenette down a hallway to the right, a living room connected to the kitchenette, and a bathroom down a hallway to the left of the bedroom. Kat was rigid with anticipation and nerves.

Hale noticed.

"Kat," he said placing their luggage at the foot of the bed. When she didn't answer but just continued to stare out of the window, he walked up to her and placed a hand under her chin to make her look up at him. "Kat," he said softly, his face close to hers as he glanced from each of her eyes searching, "What's wrong?" She glanced from him to the computer, to the window and back again.

"I have no idea. There's just something off about this whole thing. Something doesn't feel right about being here." She replied, her eyebrows scrunching up for a moment as if she was trying to solve a hard puzzle.

"Like what exactly?" all forms of playfulness and flirting was gone from his tone and expression.

"I'm not sure; just something. It feels like something bigger is happening than what we know." She looked up at him with concern, hoping to find some form of comfort that he seems to convey. He gently swiped his thumb across her jawbone as he thought still gazing in her eyes.

"Then we will just have to keep a close eye on things. Do not worry about anything; this whole treasure hunt will go perfectly. You are with one of the best painting thieves ever." He said with smirk before dropping his hand away from her chin and backing away heading toward out of the room. Kat just stood there in shock that he had been that close to her; that close to kissing her. Not that she wanted him to kiss her, goodness no.

She knew that he wanted to and she didn't want that, right? She was going insane from all the things that she had to do. That was normal right? To like someone that she only knew for a little over a month out of craziness? Yes, that was it, she was going insane. She needed a long nap and possibly a nice hot shower to clear her mind.

She went to the computer to make sure that the plan was still there along with the maps and pictures they would need for there time her. Then after shutting down the computer and putting it away, she headed over to where her luggage was sitting on the floor and took out the necessary items for showering. She got up sighing and headed toward the bathroom wondering where Hale was, perhaps the kitchen since he barely ate on the plane because he was too focused on his comic book hero movies.

She was lost in her thoughts as she opened the door to the bathroom and stopped in her tracks; her jaw did all but fall on the floor. There standing in the middle of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist was none other than Hale. Kat couldn't help but gaze at his tan torso. He wasn't extremely muscular but he wasn't lanky, he was the perfect balance between nerdy boy small and football-obsessed player. Then he turned around and noticed her standing there.

"Hey Kat, if you wanted to see me naked, you could of just asked. You did have to time it to where I was just getting out of the shower." He said smirking as Kat quickly closed her eyes and turned around.

"I ugh crap sorry. I-I-I just wanted t-t-t-to take a shower. I didn't know that y-y-you were in here." She stammered. She wanted to move but her feet seemed to be glued to the tile. He chuckled quietly and felt a heat at her back.

"Embarrassed? It's not like I really was naked. Wow that would have been bad." He chuckled and she felt the warmth on her back disappear. "Bathroom is all yours." He said and she opened her eyes long enough to see him walk away with the towel still wrapped haphazardly around his waist and his clothes in his hand.

She stared longer than she should have before closing the door and trying to get rid of the image if Hale out of her head; but with no avail. "Well, at least that got out the other things out of my head." She thought out loud.

Kat got out of the shower a few minutes later and changed in her pajama shorts and a tide-dyed T-shirt. She opened the door and peaked around, wondering where Hale was. Her cheeks still felt flushed from walking in on him. She couldn't believe that she did that! Even though Hale brushed it off like it was nothing, Kat was completely mortified at walking in on him.

"Hiding from someone?" Kat heard from the direction of the kitchenette.

"Hi Hale!" Kat said jumping out of behind the door. She was relieved to find that he was fully clothed in a plain black T-shirt and shorts. "No I wasn't hiding from anyone and what happened to your Superman pajamas? Did they find kryptonite and fly away? "

Hale smirked, "No, I just figured that these were better. Who knows when we might have to walk around in our pajamas. I figured that your cover wouldn't want to be seen with my cover in Superman pajamas."

"Well my cover thanks you for that."

"No problem for my cover." Then he held up an apple and offered it to her.

"No thanks," she replied and headed toward the bedroom exhausted from the plane ride over and planning. Hale went to close the blinds and turn off the lights before getting into bed with Kat.

As Kat was laying there, that close to Hale, she could practically feel the warmth radiating off of him. She felt strange being bed with Hale even though they were on different sides of the bed, not even touching. She turned around and faced him; she could almost make out his face from the moonlight coming through the thin curtains.

"Still can't stop looking at me?" he whispered. She rolled her eyes before replying her voice slowly getting softer.

"Sure Hale, keep thinking that." Then she fell asleep with the boy that kept invading her thoughts more and more everyday smiled from across the bed.

* * *

**So, what did you think? I am open up to suggestions for this fic! I'll update as soon as I can! :)**


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